Livestock and Resource Management

Koch companies such as Matador Cattle Company utilize a business philosophy, Market Based Management®, which empowers employees to think like owners.

The ranch’s management goal is to improve the long-term health and productivity of its renewable natural resources to profitably sustain domestic livestock and wildlife. To achieve this, the ranch has implemented innovative water and grazing management practices. Much of the ranch lies above the Seymour Aquifer, whose springwater is pumped by windmill to manmade tanks across the ranch. The Middle Pease and Tongue rivers run across the ranch, along with various wet-weather creeks; the Middle Pease feeds into the North Pease River, while the Tongue River empties into the South Pease River. Earthen tanks supplement the watering capacity for wildlife and livestock. The ranch also has a pipeline system to move water around limited portions of the ranch. Precipitation, mostly rainfall during summer thunderstorms, is about 19 inches annually. Through the use of rest-rotational grazing systems, the ranch has worked to manage the soil and grasses, to ultimately increase the quality and quantity of forage produced.

In the early 1980s, ranch management began experimenting with seeding improved grasses – specifically Ermello Weeping Lovegrass – to supplement the natural grasses available. In the late 1980s much of the Matador’s farmland – primarily cotton fields – was converted to improved pasture, specifically W.W. Spar bluestem. The ranch is experimenting with high-density, short-duration grazing cells, using about 3,200 acres of improved grasses to rest native grasses. An additional 440 acres near the headquarters seeded to Ermello Weeping Lovegrass also provide the rest-rotation options.

Learn more about Matador Ranch’s cattle and horse operations.